Nov 28

Arkansas bowhunter has encounter

Witness Observation

I scouted the area the day before and hung my ole’ man climbing tree stand on a tree for the following morning’s hunt. The only tree I could use was a small oak with a main fork that was about 12 feet off the ground and covered with poison oak. That means I could only climb up to that fork, and not my usual 20 or 25 feet which I usually like to hunt from. I’m not allergic to poison oak, so that wasn’t going to bother me. I arrived early (4:45 A.M.) parked and got dressed. I’ve learned that to be a successful hunter, you have to be scent free. I dressed in my realtree leafy suit and lacrosse rubber boots, sprayed down with scentkiller and dowsed my boots with persimmon scent and walked to my stand (5:00 A.M.). The Moon was full and I could see with the use of my Streamlight (green light) pen light.

With the morning dew, I made no noise getting to my stand and without scaring game off with a large flashlight. I made it to my stand and found that the top portion was twisted around to the back of the tree and the bottom was moved to the base of the tree. Why did someone do this and not steal it? (5:20 A.M)

I was up the tree and had my bow in my lap with my arrow pointing away from me with it resting on my stand’s gun rest. I pulled my earth scent wafers out and attached them to the outside of my back pack.

I was facing south with two big oak trees about 25 yards away. The clouds were moving fast and with the full moon, I could somewhat see in the dark.

I was very still and had everything camouflaged except my muzzy broadhead, on the end of my arrow. It was about 5:30 A.M. when I heard something walk up from behind me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI turned slowly to see if I could see it. It was big and black and at first thought it was a couple hogs. They were too big to be hogs and I wondered whose cows were loose in the refuge. I was wanting them to hurry up and leave so they wouldn’t scare the deer when something brushed up against my leg. I didn’t hear anything climb up the tree with me so I kept still. I was looking forward when I saw a big black hand reach up and grab my muzzy broadhead. The hand was a shiny black and the fingers were huge! The palms were also black like a gorilla. When it grabbed my broadhead the razor blades cut him and it yelled like a bull! It was louder than a car horn and it was at my feet. It scared the crap out of me so I started yelling back.

And cussing! It ran off breaking trees and tearing down everything in its path. I sat there 15 minutes until it got daylight and left. I believe that I scared him/her as much as it scared me.

Sounds

Breathing and a loud holler like a bull.

Additional Observations

Another time, I heard tree knocking, had something big walk up to me while hunting on river and it was breathing heavy ( looked for it but never saw it.} Also found one bare footprint by a small creek (it was a little bit bigger than mine, not like you see on t.v.) I had something throw something at me while I was on Sulpher River one time.

While wearing my leafy suit, I’ve had deer blow at me and not run. usually deer will blow and then run off. These deer will blow at me and then just stand there and watch me (only if my face is covered!!!!!) If they can see my white face then they immediately blow and run away. (The point is, the deer cannot detect me visually while I am in this leafy camo and fully covered. It’s really hard to see me in this.)

Time and Conditions

05:30 A.M. Partly Cloudy, Full Moon, around 50 degrees.

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